Looking at shipwrecks from the sky

April 28, 2015 9:49 AM

Lake Michigan is so clear right now that many shipwrecks are visible from the air.
posted by drezdn (29 comments total)

That's really cool.
posted by shelleycat at 9:58 AM on April 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Direct Facebook link to the original pictures, by U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:05 AM on April 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

Wow, that hits a weird spot in the intersection of cool and creepy for me. And I'm not normally squicked out by shipwrecks - maybe it's the color of the water, all tropical/vacacationy?
posted by widdershins at 10:14 AM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Lake Superior it's said never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy. Lake Michigan on sunny days in April, on the other hand...
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:24 AM on April 28, 2015 [28 favorites]

That big house on the eroding cliffside is going to join them sooner rather than later, I think.
posted by Fnarf at 10:27 AM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Neato. Thanks for posting.

Yeah, the people with erosion for a yard...how insurable are those places?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:34 AM on April 28, 2015

Somewhere (maybe on a Stan Rogers live show recording), I heard that it's weird that the Bermuda Triangle gets a bad rap, since significantly more ships have disappeared without a trace on the Great Lakes during the same time period. They are great lakes, not kind lakes.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:38 AM on April 28, 2015 [8 favorites]

I'm so going to make fun of my friends who dive the typically frigid, low visibility waters of Lake Michigan to explore these wrecks. Because if I can do this from the comfort of a warm, quiet aircraft while sipping wine and eating cheese, I win.
posted by quin at 10:43 AM on April 28, 2015 [5 favorites]

Wow, you can see through Lake Michigan. That in itself is pretty amazing.
posted by GuyZero at 10:45 AM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

GuyZero:

"Wow, you can see through Lake Michigan. That in itself is pretty amazing."

I know, right? I thought water was supposed to be brown!
posted by charred husk at 10:48 AM on April 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

At least a turbid green.
posted by GuyZero at 10:49 AM on April 28, 2015

Weirdly, Lake Superior is often crystal clear. I brought the kids on a glass bottom boat tour of shipwrecks outside Munising, MI and it was very cool. We could see 20' down easily.
posted by readery at 10:50 AM on April 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

They are great lakes, not kind lakes.

From the upliftingly-titled Graveyard of the Lakes:

"One authority has reported that of 199 steamships that operated on the lakes between 1818 and 1853, 54 -- an astonishing 27 per cent -- became casualties."

At least a turbid green.

One reason for this clarity (the time of year likely has something to do with it to some degree) has to do with years of zebra mussel infestation, no?

I know it's a huge problem in Lake Erie and the fisheries there. The problem with these little buggers is that they make the water too clean. The water admits too much light, affecting species like walleye that are sensitive to light and need turbid water.

Apparently,

"There are now enough zebra mussels in Lake Erie to filter the entire volume of the lake once a week."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:57 AM on April 28, 2015 [10 favorites]

But as far as invasive species in the Great Lakes go, I'll take a zebra mussel over a goddamned sea lamprey any day. Warning: nightmare fuel parasitic species.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:01 AM on April 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Rode my bike along the Chicago lakefront path the last few weeks, and the water on a sunny day is almost unnaturally blue.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 11:10 AM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the people with erosion for a yard...how insurable are those places?

The water probably isn't as close to that cliff as it looks -- my uncle-in-law has a place on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at the top of a similar vista, and there are old docks waaay up on the beach all over the place. You couldn't throw a rock from them and hit the water.
posted by Etrigan at 11:16 AM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm so going to make fun of my friends who dive the typically frigid, low visibility waters of Lake Michigan to explore these wrecks. Because if I can do this from the comfort of a warm, quiet aircraft while sipping wine and eating cheese, I win.

Something tells me your making fun may fall on deaf ears.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 11:26 AM on April 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Warning: nightmare fuel parasitic species.

Thank you for allowing me to skip right over that trauma.
posted by mikelieman at 12:03 PM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Direct Facebook link to the original pictures, by U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City

Take note: This random tiny Coast Guard station in Michigan has one of the best Facebook pages that I've ever seen.

Whomever is doing their PR is doing an awesome job, and is actually engaging with the people who are (also) geeking out over the photos, and happily chatting with some of the people who have found out more information about the wrecks (which they eventually re-posted with attribution).

Scrolling down further, their feed is full of this sort of thing -- tons of original content, cool photos, nerdy details, and enthusiastic interaction with the public.

I'm pretty cynical about the state of the web today, but the nameless Coastie who's running social media for a tiny Coast Guard base in a landlocked state has injected a small burst of confidence.
posted by schmod at 12:46 PM on April 28, 2015 [20 favorites]

Thanks! Inspired me to listen to some Gordon Lightfoot!
posted by breadbox at 1:06 PM on April 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

Whomever is doing their PR is doing an awesome job

No kidding! I started trawling through their timeline and was thinking "Wow. I could be here all day."

I thought this ice rescue was pretty nifty. They just use the wash from the rotors to free the boat that's trapped by wind blown ice.

Thanks, U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City HoistCam!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:11 PM on April 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

The crew of Hjemskomst Viking ship felt that they were most in danger in the Great Lakes portion of their voyage as opposed to the Atlantic crossing to Norway. Video 1, 2 (this is the one where they talk about the storm on the Great Lakes.)
posted by jadepearl at 1:19 PM on April 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

GenjiandProust: "They are great lakes, not kind lakes."

Eh, they're alright.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:33 PM on April 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

The crew of Hjemskomst Viking ship felt that they were most in danger in the Great Lakes portion of their voyage as opposed to the Atlantic crossing to Norway. Video 1 , 2 (this is the one where they talk about the storm on the Great Lakes.)

Oh, cool. I didn't know about this. Thanks!

My inlaws live on the north shore of Lake Superior, and I grew up on Lake Huron, which I've sailed, and been caught out in heavy weather on.

I like fishing and boating but whenever I'm up on Superior, I look out at the lake and go "Nope."

Here's some heavy weather on Superior.

The recording of the radio transmissions between the captain of the Arthur M. Anderson (which had been following the Edmund Fitzgerald and was providing her with radar coordinates since she had lost hers in the storm) and the USCG is pretty sobering. Direct link to the mp3 hosted by Michigan State University here.

"Is there any possibility you could come about and go back there and do any searching?" the Coast Guard asks the Anderson's Captain, Jesse Cooper, who had radioed them to report he'd lost the Edmund Fitzgerald on his radar, and they couldn't see their lights anymore.

He'd already made the relative shelter of Whitefish point, though, and was really hesistant to turn back. You can hear it in his voice. But he did go back, since they were the only ship in the area that could launch an immediate search.

So yeah, do not taunt the lakes.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:46 PM on April 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

This is so cool! Thanks for posting!
posted by Alexandra Michelle at 4:22 PM on April 28, 2015

I grew up on the Great Lakes. I've seen Superior really clear before. But Michigan usually is pretty murky. Or was.

Hey, can you eat zebra mussels? I'd volunteer to help with the problem.
posted by persona au gratin at 4:59 PM on April 28, 2015

Hey, can you eat zebra mussels?

You CAN, but it's not a great idea. They don't taste good, they're really small, and they pick up a lot of contaminants (which is why they taste bad).
posted by MissySedai at 5:23 PM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yup. Their lives are devoted to filtering crap out of the water.

“Most clams and mussels are edible, but that does not mean they taste good! Many species and fish and ducks eat zebra mussels, so they are not harmful in that sense. Zebra mussels are so small and do not have much in the way of “meat” inside them, you would have to be pretty hungry to want to eat them. However, because they are filter feeders, they can accumulate pollutants in their tissues that may not be healthy for people to consume. You should contact local public health officials to learn whether it is safe to eat mussels or fish from a specific waterbody.”
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:44 PM on April 28, 2015

I'll take a zebra mussel over a goddamned sea lamprey any day. Warning: nightmare fuel parasitic species.

OH MY GOD YOU WEREN'T KIDDING.
posted by schmod at 9:55 PM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]